Family mourns slain mother

Sunday evening, Sylvia Santillan gathered with friends in a park in Greeley to share laughs and new pictures of her children.

Five days later, her friends and relatives gathered again, this time in a nondescript brown church, to share their grief and memories.

Sylvia Adela Santillan, 18, was laid to rest Friday with pink and red roses in a white coffin.

Her death in a gang-related shooting Sunday night was not her choice. She was stolen from her family by someone trying to act “hard,” said Pastor Rigo Magana.

In the beginning, traditional Spanish-language Christian songs, complete with an accordion, filled the room at Sylvia’s funeral service. Magana switched between English and Spanish to read from the Gospel of John and soothe the mourners.

Then he stepped in front of the pulpit and shouted at them, imploring the 460 people in the crowd not to let Sylvia die in vain.

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He begged the scores of young Latinos in the crowd to turn away from gangs and toward God. He railed against their lifestyle, which too often ends in violence.

“The police are ready. They are waiting for something to happen. … You know something is going to happen,” Magana said, talking about possible retaliation. “You might think, ‘This was supposed to be a funeral service?’ Well, it is. But I don’t want to do another funeral service for you.”

He told them that after Sylvia’s death, no one would be able to say they didn’t know, that they couldn’t understand the tragedy families suffer because of gang violence. There are no excuses now.

“Young man, young lady, I want to marry you; I want to dedicate your children; I want to send you off to college, to trade school, to a job,” Magana said, his voice rising. “I don’t want to ride along next to you to the cemetery. I don’t want to visit you in the jail. That’s not what God made you for!”

The mourners sat in silence. Some nodded their heads.

Sylvia’s daughter Leandra, who will be 3 next month, scampered to and from her five grieving uncles during the ceremony.

During a song called “Dme Fe,” which is Spanish for “Give me Faith,” she lay on the floor in her burgundy-colored dress. Jaime Santillan, her 24-year-old uncle, smiled at her sadly and pulled the girl to his lap.

Other relatives later took turns hugging Leandra and her tuxedoed brother, Daniel, 10 months, as if their small frames somehow connected others to the lost mother.

Hundreds of mourners filed past Sylvia’s open casket, turning away to wipe their tears and console Sylvia’s family. The family all wore pink roses pinned to their chests.

Some people wore red to the church on Friday, a gang color lost among the sea of mourners’ black. It was not lost on Magana.

“For those of us who are maybe part of a particular gang, we are responsible,” he warned. Switching to Spanish, he said he’s heard the northside gang — the gang to which Sylvia’s friends belong — is mostly comprised of people from Mexico.

“I’m from Mexico. I was born in Mexico,” he said. “I expect more from us.”

Sylvia was trying to do the best she could for her children. She recently bought a condo off 71st Avenue and 19th Street, in west Greeley, closer to the Wendy’s where she worked in Centerplace 47th Avenue.

She also bought a 2005 Honda Pilot sport-utility vehicle — she was so proud of it — and scraped and saved whatever she could to make the best possible life for her kids, Jaime Santillan said.

“She was the best person,” he said. “The best sister. She was so independent.”

“We know she is safe; we know she is in paradise, holding the hand of the God that made her. As you can see, we don’t know how long we have. Follow Sylvia’s lead, follow her steps.”

Jason Stillman, Sylvia’s friend and a pallbearer, in a eulogy.

“She was doing it all by herself. She worked at Wendy’s the past three years. … She really loved working there. She wanted to quit, to get more money, but Wendy’s wouldn’t let her go.”

Santillan said managers at the Wendy’s at 4644 Centerplace Drive worked today so Sylvia’s co-workers could attend the funeral.

Jaime Santillan, Sylvia’s older brother.

“You have to decide to change your life. Don’t let Sylvia die in vain. Say ‘God, it’s gotta stop, before another family has to suffer like this.’ This isn’t fantasy — this is reality.”